RP:Walking In Shadows

Part of the On Stranger Tides Arc

This is a Necromancer's Guild RP.

This is a Warrior's Guild RP.

Summary: Rilla gets some much needed training from Khitti for her new shadow magic.

Vigilanti Semper, Venturil

Khitti had done as Rilla had asked and sent word to her to meet at Vigilanti Semper. She couldn’t recall just how familiar the vampire was with the keep, so she gave directions to a training room in the command wing. When she got there, she’d find a rather quiet Khitti, one who’d taken to peering out the window that overlooked the courtyard until Rilla arrived. And when she did and entered the room? All four walls, the ceiling, and the floor would shimmer, the enchantments placed within the room fully attuning itself to her magic, in addition to Khitti’s. The redhead seemed more pensive than usual, but nothing would be said about it. It didn’t usually do well to tell others of the bad feelings that she occasionally got. It’s not like she could control it--and hell, half the time they were about little things. Like when Dominic got it in his head occasionally to light something on fire inside the apartment. But this feeling… it felt different. She tried not to dwell on it and instead turned her thoughts towards a means of helping her new(ish) friend.

Rilla came to Semper more than most places, though she was only rarely actually seen there. She preferred to come and go quietly, caring for the animals but rarely stopping to chat. When Khitti invited her, it was a welcome familiar location. She’d done as asked and done her best to meditate, looking for peace and quiet in her own mind. What she’d learned was that it wasn’t only outside sounds she couldn’t ignore. The stone was worn around her neck once more, weighing down the thin gold chain and the delicate gold band that kept residence there alongside it. She entered hesitantly, her boot rested on the door to prop it open for a moment before stepping inside. Thin hands were buried in the pockets of her jacket, holding it shut around her. Shoulders stiffened and she jumped as the room seemed to react to her presence, rolling onto her toes as crystalline eyes searched the room only to land on Khitti. “What are you doing?” She asked cautiously, her voice kept soft.

Khitti shook her head when Rilla spoke, offering the woman a faint smile, “Nothing. Just thinking.” She pushed up off the wall she’d been leaning against and stepped towards the vampire, though she didn’t fully close the gap between them. Finally getting a good look at her, crimson brows furrowed somewhat at the stiffened appearance, “What’s wrong?” While waiting for an answer, she made her way to some training dummies, of which she pushed three in different areas of the room. “I’ve never taught anyone how to shadowstep or shadow-walk or whatever you want to call it, so I’m going to get creative with this,” she said with a smirk. “Especially since it sounds like yours and mine are quite different. I had thought that I could force shadows to envelop the three of these and you attempt to “jump” between the three of them. This won’t be all of course, but it seemed like simple enough thing to start with.”

Rilla nodded at Khitti’s answer, eyeing the strange shimmering walls and floor and ceiling all one at a time with a furrowed brow. “I’ve just never seen anything like this before - it didn’t do this the last time I was in here.” She explained, rolling her shoulders back in an effort to dispel the tension in them. Approaching the dummy, Rilla looked between it and her teacher and bit her lower lip. “I can try,” she agreed, “I’m just not even sure how to start since it’s always just happened.” She laughed nervously and shook her head, rocking back on her heels as she considered what was being suggested. Her hands emerged from her pockets - empty - and fingers tapped lightly on the leather sheath of the dagger on one side absently. “Do you think if I just stand in a shadow and try to go to the next one it will work? Or is it a spell of some sort I don’t know I’m doing? I’m not sure how that would work.” Her nose wrinkled and she shot the other woman an apologetic look. “I guess we probably don’t know until we try.”

Khitti || “Oh. It’s enchanted. It’s just this room though. It’s mainly to keep things from getting out of control. Say we get a mage in the guild that deals mainly with fire and still needs a bit of training? If they set something on fire in here that isn’t supposed to be, the fire won’t spread to the rest of the castle. There’s an enchantment just like it in the training room on the Tranquility. Paid a bit more for that one--it’s voice-activated,” Khitti said with a smirk. “The enchantment here senses the type of magic a person has and basically attunes the entire room to it. It’s a lot more basic than it sounds. If someone doesn’t know they have magical abilities or doesn’t use them, it won’t even register, because they won’t have magical residue on them from their spells.” The former templar shrugged. “It’s just a precaution. I don’t think we’ll have that issue with your ability, however.” She crossed her arms and eyed Rilla thoughtfully, “I’m going to say to you the same thing I’ve told other people I’ve tried to teach in the past, albeit with other abilities: imagine yourself stepping into the shadows, melding with it, and coming out in a different spot. Recall what it feels like when you do it unintentionally. Do you feel one entirely with the darkness? Does it call to you? Does it feel like home? Working in the shadows is a lonely gig most of the time. You need to make it your companion. Welcome it, just as it welcomes you. Until you’re fully comfortable with it--and likely yourself--things may be difficult in the beginning with this.” Khitti shifted her attention towards the dummies, both hands reached out, though to two separate ones. Like a magnet, Khitti drew the shadows from the nooks and crannies of the room--and even from out in the hallway and outside the window--and sent them to encase the dummies entirely, with a bit of area around the three, so Rilla didn’t just shadowstep into the things, should she succeed. And soon after, Khitti did the same with the third, giving Rilla essentially three pillars of darkness to work with. “Take your time. Breathe… even though you don’t need it.”

Rilla hesitated a moment before she nodded her understanding. “I’ll try not to set any other rooms on fire.” She joked, nodding along as Khitti spoke. Her shoulders lowered with an intentional breath and she leaned her head to one side and then the other. She was quiet as Khitti worked, watching how she gathered the shadows from the room together. Khitti seemed to control the shadows themselves, Rilla felt more like a part of them. Halfway in and halfway out, like some tangled metaphor for all the ways she’d disappeared and reinvented before. She stood watching the shadows for a moment before she relented and closed her eyes as if to try to focus and doing her best to clear her nagging mind, steadying herself with soft knees and jaw. Standing outside of the shadow felt futile and one eye peeked open, then the other. She wrinkled her nose, looking back at Khitti apologetically before she crossed to the nearest shadow to stand inside of it, staring into the next one. “Maybe I have to start in the shadow?” She suggested with lofted brows and a hopeful hint of a smile that was flashed towards Khitti before setting her gaze once more. Rilla stood there a moment longer rooted in place, it was only when she took a step to pace, almost out of the shadow that she reappeared in the next one without breaking her stride. She made it through each shadow, dipping into and out of existence (or something) as if nothing had happened and came to rest only when she was back in her original spot. Her form stiffened, but smile spread. “See! That.” Rilla said, brushing her hair back from her face with one hand. “It’s like I’m stepping into something and right back out, but it happens so fast that -” she shrugged, rocking back on her heels. “Sorry, was that right?”

Khitti watched as Rilla took a moment to breathe needlessly and then attempted to use her ability. Her olive-green line of sight shifted between each pillar of darkness as the vampire shadowstepped to each of them. When Rilla was done? Khitti clapped for her. “That was great! Just like that.” She stepped away for a moment, moving to where she’d left her satchel and grabbed a notebook and pencil out of it, then started scribbling things down regarding Rilla’s ability. “Sorry, I’m writing a book on the Black Tides. Er, the whole section of shadow magic that falls under the necromancy type of magic. I’ve been gathering a lot of info on it. I’m not naming names or anything. Just detailing abilities, on the off chance that there’s others like you. I don’t expect there to be many like me, unfortunately. If at all.” Well. There was Shishi. But, Khitti didn’t know him and wasn’t going to just waltz up to the guy and ask about his abilities--especially after being told by his daughter that he hated it all. It was fair enough in Khitti’s book (she hated it too once upon a time) and so she’d find her knowledge elsewhere. “I think if you just keep working on that, you’ll get it down in no time. But, just be wary when things are not quite right with you, whether it’s physical or mental. As you’ve already told me, your magic can fluctuate, depending on how you’re feeling. So, don’t get -fully- dependent on it. Use your vampiric speed instead, if you’re in a bind and the shadowstepping isn’t working. Always give yourself an alternative.”

Rilla nodded, her brow furrowed although Khitti’s reaction told her that she was doing it right. She shifted her weight foot to foot, considering as she chewed the inside of her cheek. “Take all the notes you want.” She agreed with a slight shrug, and crossed her arms over her chest. “I keep thinking it should feel like something, like I should be doing something specific and instead it just happens.” She pressed the heel of her boot into the ground in front of her, stretching instinctively. “I understand it’s different for different people, but for you, how do you do it?” She asked curiously, crystalline eyes fixed on Khitti’s face as if she might find an answer the other woman might be unwilling to speak if she studied the way the thought moved across it. “Where do I go when it happens, is it an actual place?” She switched legs, her head tilted to one side slightly. “Jaylen would never tell me much about himself, could this kind of thing get passed down with … you know …” she mimicked a bite in the air, lips pulled back to reveal fangs. “I thought I’d read that things like lineage were important in what you’d be like as a vampire, but Jaylen never told me how he came to be a vampire or for exactly how long.” She stopped herself and shot Khitti an apologetic smile.

Khitti shrugged somewhat. “Maybe it’s not supposed to feel like anything for you. Maybe it’s just that fluid and it’s like you’ve always had it all along. Magic is different for everyone, Rilla. Just like no two people are the same, no two magically-inclined people are the same either.” She closed her notebook for the moment and stuffed it back into her bag. “Like I said before, mine isn’t like anyone else’s. Here--” Khitti motioned for Rilla to stand off to the side. “--let me show you.” Once Rilla was safely out of the way, Khitti used the somatic gestures needed to open a portal to the Shadow Plane, her hands waving a little, then coming together, and then splitting apart at the palms, looking as though she was parting an ocean with magic. The portal carefully opened, from the middle working its way outward. Black lightning crackled around the edges, the portal itself a swirling vortex of shadows in hues deep purples and greens. “This is what happens when I use my shadowstepping ability. I open a portal to the Shadow Plane in one spot and I pop back out in another area on this side via another portal. Creating a portal like this takes a lot of magic. Unsurprisingly, shadowstepping takes a lot more because it is one mini portal after another.” With a wave of her hand, the portal closed again, leaving nothing more than a wisp of shadow behind. “I guess the best way to put it is that I’m a plane-jumper. Over time, after I found out that I could open portals in the first place, I trained myself to open them faster, and it eventually evolved into the shadowstepping I do now.” Khitti sighed and shrugged again, “That seems to be the way of things with elder vampires, I guess. My sire was a miserable failure with a penchant for scooping up any girl he could find. Larewen Dragana is just as bad, though her failure lies with her lust for power and her habit of forgetting those she promises to look after. I can’t really comment on Kasyr, but he seems alright. Sometimes, it’s for the better to separate yourself somewhat from that and make your own path, even if this Jaylen wasn’t that bad of a person like some of the other elders.”

Rilla ’s jaw tensed as Khitti spoke and she drew a breath through her nose, released the tension on the exhale with a smile and a nod. “Sorry,” she shrugged, “I like to *know* things.” She laughed, shaking her head at herself. She stepped aside when instructed to, pushed auburn curls away from her face and behind her ear, briefly silent as she nodded to herself. “This is all very different than what Kail tried to teach me. That was very ‘you do A and B will happen.’ Which at least made sense to me, even if it didn’t work.” She wrinkled her nose laughter colouring her tone. “I’m starting to get that there isn’t an answer here, and there maybe doesn’t have to be a spell or ritual or motion or even object that you use?” She rose to her toes and rocked back on her heels, burying her hands in her pockets. “I know for sure that I’m not doing what you’re doing, but what if I was to walk into the portal instead of you?” She questioned with a step closer and a cocked head. “Is the shadow plane a place you could take someone?” Her curiosity acknowledged, Rilla bit her cheek, relenting to offer something honest in exchange for Khitti’s openness. “Jaylen is a wild thing, and I was his last piece of humanity. He’s too wild to stay and too possessive to let anyone else have me. I always figured we’d find our way back together, but after what I saw at the archipelago I know that’s not true.” Another slight shrug and she straightened, eyes still curious as she licked her lips. “There’s no path to walk with him, so I’ve been figuring it out on my own.” She looked away, her face would have flushed with chagrin if it could have, “anyway, I really appreciate your help. Is there anything I can do like … homework?”

Khitti || “I’m still trying to figure my own magic out too, even now, so I definitely empathize,” Khitti said with a faint, hopefully reassuring smile. “It’ll always be a work in progress. Especially if other abilities pop up out of nowhere later on. But regardless, we’ll figure it out. I know it’s not comfortable for you to not know, but you do know some things. You know that it’s not like mine. You know that you -can- make it happen when you’re thinking about it, you just have to get used to doing so. You know that I’m going to help you with it as much as I can.” She looked to the place where the portal had been. “If you go through it and I don’t, you’d be there and I wouldn’t. I can definitely take you there. I go there likely more often than anyone else with this sort of planar-jumping ability, to be honest. I have allies over there. But, there’s a lot of bad things there too. Some of the wildlife is no different than what they are here, they’re just a hell of a lot stronger. Even moreso than a vampire. If for whatever reason, you felt the need to go there, and I was unable to go with you, I know spots to open portals that are safe for people to walk through. If you would’ve jumped through that portal just now, you would’ve found yourself falling into what they call the Maw of Souls over there. If you go to the dead forest just west of here, you’d find a sinkhole there. On the other side, in the Shadow Plane, there’s what looks like a sinkhole, but it’s massive and has been spreading apparently, and whatever beast it is that lives in it is massive and has rows and rows of giant sharp fangs.” Khitti smirked somewhat at Rilla. “I can certainly take you there at some point, if you’d like. Things have calmed down over there for now, I think.” There’s a frown at Rilla’s mention of doing things herself and Khitti could only sigh. “You’re not doing it alone anymore, Rilla. You have help now. I might not be a vampire anymore, but I -was- and I lived with them and spent time around them for a long time, even after I became human again.” The mention of homework led Khitti away from the topic of help, likely thankfully for Rilla. “Just keep practicing what you did here. Find some place safe. There’s plenty of areas in Lithrydel for it. You can use the training room here or… there’s always Vailkrin. It’s always full of shadows. Or you could even practice underwater somewhere if you wanted. After a certain point, it -does- get dark down there and so long as you’re in a safe territory, you’d be fine. It’s not like you’re going to drown or anything.”

Rilla nodded her understanding and returned the smile, though hers was of appreciation. She watched the empty space as Khitti explained, studying the emptiness that she’d conjured the other place from. “I want to go.” Rilla agreed immediately, looking back to Khitti with a nod. “Especially if it’s a shadow plane like you say, it can’t hurt to understand whatever’s going on in there, right?” A hand emerged from her jacket pocket to gesture at the empty space, and making a stop to tug at the ring on it’s chain around her throat before once more hiding it. “Plus, I like a good adventure as much as the next girl.” She winked at the other redhead, shaking her head and looking away. “I’m not used to having anyone on my side, situational or otherwise.” Rilla admitted, shoulders curled inwards as if to make her already slight form smaller, pushing past discomfort in the interest of connection. “But thank you for helping me before I end up getting myself killed or something.” Her nose wrinkled, well aware of the dangers of magic, possibly more than it’s benefits. “Maybe I’ll go see the bottom of the harbour and try to go back for my stone when I sleep.”

Khitti || “I do need to check on a couple treants there, so we can do that some time soon,” Khitti said, though it would unfortunately be quite a deal longer before they were able to get around to it. She picked up her things and nodded towards the door, “Hungry or anything? I could use a drink.” Khitti would lead the way regardless, down to the wing of the castle with the kitchen and eating area. “Speaking of a drink… If we somehow end up having communication issues with all this--say, like, maybe I’m babbling too much in magic-speak--I could *show* it to you. You’d have to drink from me though. Not a lot. And I know how to build up walls and such in my head, so you’re not just flooded with my thoughts or memories throughout the entire duration, but... “ She shrugged a little. Khitti wasn’t going to say it, but she had not been drank from by a vampire in a very long time. Not since she was turned. But, if something seemed unclear, it felt like the easiest way. “But, that’s only if you’re comfortable with it. We will endeavor to find other ways to sort things out, if you are. It’s not a problem.” The ‘drink’ Khitti mentioned was whiskey, it seemed, for when they got to the kitchen, she grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the designated cupboard and sat down with it. She didn’t bother looking for a glass. She didn’t care right now.

Rilla || “I’ll act tough and be your muscle.” Rilla suggested with a laugh. Khitti was her own muscle, and Rilla didn’t have to act tough. “I wouldn’t say no to a drink. I’ve been bored with food since I was turned.” She shrugged, clearly not starving to death. Rilla had, if anything, put on weight since she wandered back out of the forests as a feral thing who’d been on the run for too long. She’d finally begun to regain the weight she’d lost being sired, though she’d always been slight even as a human. Her urges rarely went unsatisfied, Rilla just didn’t get caught. She cleared her throat at the suggestion, eyeing Khitti cautiously as she rocked back on her heels. “I’ve never tried to feed from someone without killing them,” she admitted softly, “I kill them when I’m finished with them. I try to make it work.” Rilla shrugged, chewing her cheek with a furrowed brow. “Drink from you so that you can show me?” She asked incredulously, tilting her head to one side slightly, her hand rising to push a strand of hair back from her eyes. “Is that something that other people can do?” Rilla followed Khitti despite her confusion, sitting across from her and leaning her forearms against the table. “I know I’ve got more control than say … Inks,” she laughed, “but I’ve only been like this a few years. Not quite three. I’m not sure how safe that would be.”

Khitti shrugged. “I was only a vampire for a year and a half. It was something the idiot who sired me told me about. There’s likely no link made with the people you feed from because the intent, more or less, is to kill. There’s no link if they’re dead. It’s essentially like a psychic link.” She took a drink of the whiskey and slid it over to Rilla. “We don’t have to do it if you’re not comfortable with it, though. We’ll make do and figure things out. Regardless, I trust you enough to not kill me. I’ve been around undead of all sorts for a good portion of my life. I know which ones are going to kill me and which ones aren’t at this point. Literally my entire band is made of up undead and they haven’t tried to eat me alive yet. As for the food… well, I guess it depends on what food you’re eating. If regular food, even stuff from my bakery doesn’t suffice, I could always try experimenting. It’s probably about time I branched out a bit anyway.”

Rilla looked Khitti over for a moment before she laughed. “Daermon did that to me once, I figured he was lying. I guess you’re saying that he wasn’t?” Rilla may not have known for a fact that was who Khitti was talking about, but the elder vampire who had tried to charm her over and over again had made an impression. “How long does the link last for? Is it two way, or can I just see what you do? And, can everyone do it, do you think?” The questions probably came out too rapidly, too eagerly for polite company and Rilla wrinkled her nose at Khitti apologetically. “I’d like to know what you’re feeling, but maybe I should have a snack first just to stack the deck in our favour.” She suggested, her crystalline gaze fixed on the other woman for a long moment as she considered it. “It’s not that food doesn’t taste good, more that it doesn’t quench the same hunger. It’s performative, I don’t need it to survive.” One shoulder rose, she rose to and silently fetched a half-filled bottle of rum from the cupboard Khitti had revealed to her, and took her place once more after a deep drink that made her cringe. “I think I’m trying to decide if I want to feel human or not, or if I’m even any less human than I was before. Jaylen never ate in front of me, I was also always chasing the last shred of his humanity. I worry the same will be true of me if I don’t learn to go through the motions.”

Khitti || It’d been a long time since Khitti’d heard that name out loud. She lost a bit of color in her face, her stomach turned into angry knots, and an anger that had been dormant for years resurfaced somewhat. “No. Daermon -is- a liar. And a cheater. And probably the worst person I’ve ever met--and that’s saying a lot considering all of the people I’ve come in contact with and had to put down.” Her tone was icy and showed no mercy towards the one that had turned her and used and abused her. Khitti shifted her line of sight elsewhere, unable to wholly focus on anything. It took her a minute or two before she could return to the conversation at hand. “It’s been a long time since I’ve shared a link with anyone, but it lasts for several days at least. I’d probably need a little bit of time to prepare for it, whenever it was to happen. I haven’t had to build up walls in my mind for a long time now. I don’t want to just… assault you with my thoughts and memories. You have to learn to compartmentalize everything. Tuck things away behind invisible walls, if you don’t want them seen. But, that can be practiced too,” she said at length. She didn’t have a chance to build them up against Viera; the Catalian had been far too strong, even for someone like Khitti, who’s had her mind invaded multiple times. “I went through the same thing. I was questioning whether I wanted to be more human or not. I decided I just wanted to be human altogether again and had to work hard to find a cure. I didn’t really get a choice in being turned, even if it’d been me that ultimately decided it. It was that or a permanent death.” Khitti took up the whiskey again, and took an even longer drink of it than before.

Rilla would have blanched when Khitti did, but instead her face was even and apologetic, chin dipped slightly. “You don’t have to tell me, we’re all better off without him here.” Rilla acknowledged, downing a deep drink of her rum. The cooks would have to improvise tomorrow if they needed to cook with alcohol, this called for liquor for the both of them. Her own connections to the people who had made this place hell were long severed, but you never forget a snake-in-man’s-clothing once you’ve come face to face with them. “It sounds a lot like what I’ve been doing my whole life. Or trying to, at least.” Rilla half-laughed, setting the bottle down with thin hands wrapped around it’s neck. She tapped a quiet rhythm against it idly. “But will you feel what I feel too? Is that how it works? Or can you feel me feeling you?” Her heel scuffed along the floor lightly and she leaned back in her chair. “I think that I like being a vampire, but I don’t want to be like him.” Rilla asserted, more honestly than she’d normally have liked but if Khitti was offering to let her into her head it was the least she could do. “Before me he was married, and it was everything he could do not to kill them after he was turned. They left him, from what I know they’re long gone now. He told me that he had always been in the darkness, but afterward he was it and it was him. He couldn’t help himself. At the time I thought he was being dramatic.” She brought the bottle to her lips, drank deeply and let the bottle hand between her fingers. A bittersweet, crooked grin flashed across delicate features and she sighed. “I want to be like this, I wouldn’t change back, but I don’t want to end up like him, or like the Rilla in the cave.”

Khitti || “I will feel what you feel, as long as you want me to. It goes both ways. But, in the beginning, things might be more akin to being swallowed up by a sea until you’re able to dam things up, essentially. There’s a bit of a distance to it too, but I wouldn’t be able to speak to you from Cenril if you were all the way in Frostmaw. I never fully figured it out though,” Khitti said after another drink. “Daermon wasn’t married, but he flirted with every female he came in contact with. Said it was because of a curse that was put on him, which is utterly ridiculous. When him and I were together, he was also with someone else, a woman named Aira. And I stupidly allowed it to happen because I had no spine. He wouldn’t even come to Frostmaw with me, when the war against the frost giants started there, so I left him entirely. The idiot went and mixed his bloodline with Larewen Dragana’s tainted one. I hope it drives him crazy, just like it drove everyone else Larewen sired crazy and I hope someone puts him down like he should’ve been ages ago.” She sighed and shrugged. “You’re allowed to be who you want, Rilla. So, if you want to remain this way, then do so. If there ends up being things I can’t help you with, also, you could seek out Kasyr.”

Rilla nodded as Khitti spoke. “We can try it,” she agreed, “I trust you.” She held the woman’s gaze for a moment as if to assert that she did, in fact, mean that. Her rapidly draining bottle was weighed in her hand and then rested atop the table once more (for when she needs her next headrush to clear the dissonance). “Do you want to? Figure it out, I mean. If we’re going to work together it might be good to be able to communicate privately.” She shrugged, hesitant to elaborate, and pursed her lips. “In the distant future, I’m sure. But I can see how it might have it’s uses.” She was quiet as Khitti spoke of the vampire who had been a relentless flirt, her jaw clenched as she described it. “Let’s hope someone’s already done it and you don’t have to do it.” A simple answer, her brows lofted and she looked away, shaking off her own tension and drawing a breath. White knuckles relaxed, releasing her fist. “Funny how the people who could teach me how to be a vampire are both human now.” Rilla mused. “I thought vampires had these houses and orders and you were tied to your sire, but if they do I suspect I’m the vampire equivalent of a stray cat.”

Khitti nodded somewhat, “Yeah. We can. It’s definitely useful.” She offered Rilla a faint smile as if to emphasize that she felt that way. It was just hard to be anything other than annoyed by Daermon’s continued existence, even if his interaction with Rilla happened years before Khitti even came to Lithrydel. “I believe Kasyr is still technically head of House Azakhaer. There are still several houses there in Vailkrin. But, there’s people like Daermon who didn’t have a house of his own. I think we’d be considered rogue vampires? I dunno. It’s stupid politics that I never cared for. But, I think at this point, if I ever went back, I’d probably go to Kasyr. He might not be able to turn me, but there’s probably someone else in his house that could. Iintahquohae maybe, if he allowed it. I barely know the guy and I trust him more than I ever trusted Larewen. He might be an alcoholic now, but from what I’ve read, he was a decent king years ago. And besides, I can’t exactly complain about someone drinking a bit too much.” She shook her bottle a little and took another drink. Khitti didn’t finish it off, but instead recorked the bottle. “I supposed I should head home. My assistant Camina can only watch Dominic for so long,” she said with a smirk.

Rilla ’s gaze lingered on Khitti, concern creasing her brow. “How can you be the head of a vampire house if you aren’t a vampire?” She questioned, and then waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t answer that, Kasyr was a good leader and they could do a lot worse.” At least according to her recollection of her time here. “I’d rather not owe anyone anything, nevermind a sire. I think I’m alright being a stray.” She bristled at the idea, corking the last of her drink as well - leaving just enough behind to be annoying when the kitchen staff found it. “It’s probably not worth it anyway. No one should live forever.” Rilla stood, replacing her drink in the cupboard and shuffling it behind another bottle to be less immediately obvious. “I’d offer to do it, but I’d just make you into more of a monster. Maybe check in in a decade - or however long that takes. At least you know your sire’d have been willing to fight or die for you and yours.” She dipped her head, lips pressed into a fine line as she faced the woman who she’d unexpectedly aligned herself with. “Better go put out the fires. I’ll see you next week?” Rilla backed away from Khitti with an easy smile. “If you ever want to practice defending yourself *without* magic, let me know. It comes in handy every now and then.”